


Creative Solutions

by Lunarium



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Dark Magic, F/M, M/M, Memories, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-21 20:53:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17050385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/pseuds/Lunarium
Summary: "I’ve spent years going along with these 'creative solutions' and where has it gotten me?" The last time King Harrow accepted Viren's act of dark magic, it cost them both terribly. Viren reflects on some other times he resorted to dark magic as he prepares Harrow for the funeral.





	Creative Solutions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pearwaldorf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pearwaldorf/gifts).



She studied him with utmost loathing. While Viren has grown used to her distain, he was not up for dealing with the matter on this particular early morning. The sky had shifted from the pitch black of the night to a more subtle blue as he pulled the sheet over the body. Though the curtains were drawn, the lack of moonlight indicated clouds obscuring the full moon. 

“I do not wish to argue with you today, Opeli,” Viren said in a firm yet soft tone. “Tonight we have lost our king, and I have lost my dearest. He was like a brother to me, and it hurts beyond any pain imaginable that I must be the one to bury him.” 

“Why?” 

Her voice, icy cold, set pinpricks through his arm, but he did not look at her. 

“I know, Opeli, normally we wait seven nights and seven—”

“No. _WHY?_ ” she demanded. “You allowed him to die!” 

Viren looked up, meeting her eyes. The loathing was too much to bear, and he had to glance away. 

“I would never allow that, and you know it, Opeli,” he said sternly. 

“I do not know it,” Opeli spat bitterly. 

_Oh, but if you had known._

*

They had met Sarai as she charged into battle riding on her horse. Sarai’s commanding voice had rung through the air. She had shielded them from the Skywing elves alone before aid could arrive.

The woman had been with child, which had both alarmed and charmed Harrow to her immediately. This too was noticed by Viren, and whatever Harrow liked, he did as well. But he feared for the lady’s safety, even if she displayed more than competent skill in battle. He cast a series of dark magic to shield her as well as themselves from any harm. 

But Sarai had survived, looking radiant after the battle. He watched with amusement as his old friend approached her with an invite back to the castle. Her company had included her own sister, a general tall and mighty, who spoke with her hands. 

“A woman with child that rides into battle? Do you not fear for the child’s wellbeing?”

“My people do not have a word for fear in our language,” Sarai said as she cut through the steak served before her. “Though the closest we can get is ‘caution’.” 

Harrow chuckled. “Who is the little fellow’s father?” 

“The child is mine,” Sarai said proudly. “That is all you need to know.” 

Harrow leaned back, his eyes twinkling. After she was done, Sarai got up to peer out of the courtyard. 

“This is a wonderful view, my king,” she said as two small children ran towards her. 

“Soren! Claudia!” Viren called. “Give our guest a tour of the castle! No pranks!” 

Both groaned at the last command, but they were glad to take her hand and lead her, both talking excitedly. Sarai’s sister Amaya and Gren, Amaya’s friend and interpreter, followed closely behind. 

Harrow was still watching her retreating back, his eyes full of stars. Viren cleared his throat and set his flask down. 

“Well,” he said with amusement. “Do you set your eyes on this one?” 

Noticing his obviousness, Harrow coughed and tried to act natural. “Yes, yes, I may consider it. She has left an impression on me.” 

“I noticed.” 

Harrow threw him a look. “I would love to see her as my bride.” 

“So you have finally thought about settling down?” Viren asked. “Then I must begin getting used to not sneaking into your bedroom in the middle of the night.” 

Harrow laughed deeply. “You had to learn to abandon this behavior a long time ago, friend!” 

“You know what they say about bad habits. And how much I simply cannot resist you.” 

Harrow cocked one eyebrow at the attempt at flirtation in his hall. “Well! How does you wife feel about this?” 

“Oh, she seems quite amused by it, actually,” Viren said. “Perhaps…before the big day…if the lady has not occupied your thoughts entirely…” 

“Viren, as your king, I am warning you…” 

“Oh, I do enjoy warnings.”

*

“Opeli, I am not in the mood for your mutiny right now!” Viren grunted as he tried to move Harrow’s body off the ground. “Help me lift him!”

Opeli’s continued to glare at him. 

“We must take him down to the chambers where he must be cleansed of all of life’s impurities and kept before he is to rest,” she said. 

Viren sighed. “I’m afraid we do not have time.”

He knew she had a point, and he would love nothing more than to give his friend and beloved the proper ritual before his funeral, but they were pressed for time and war loomed ever closer.

And the way her eyes bore through him with such loathing was another sort of misery he just couldn’t bear. 

“Opeli, please!”

*

The wedding was spectacular, as only a royal wedding could be. Viren stood by his friend and somewhat lover, watching with genuine affection as Harrow took Sarai and called her his wife, and named her Queen of Katolis. Harrow was happy, so Viren was happy.

A beautiful reception followed after. 

Viren’s children laughed and played around them. Sarai smiled warmly, but Viren worried they could accidentally trip the queen, endangering the child inside, although King Harrow also found them amusing. Viren shooed them off, with the tiniest bit of dark magic; tiny violet lightening bolts jolted out of his fingertips and struck the ground before their feet, scattering them away, laughing and screaming. 

He watched as they made a beeline for their mother, who bent down to sweep her arms over them. She looked up at him, and he smiled warmly as he met the eyes of his beloved Opeli.

*

“We’ll clean him per the customs, but the funeral will be immediate,” Viren said as they carried the body, helped by a few guards, down to the chamber.

“We must stick to our traditions!” Opeli argued. “Seven nights and—”

“We are at war, Opeli!” 

“What are you _really_ planning, Lord Viren? What were you doing in the private quarters with the king? I do not trust you!” Opeli snarled. 

Viren pounded the tip of his staff and spun around towards her. 

The words, the hurt, the pain becoming unbearable—“You don’t understand. You really don’t understand.” 

The reason why she regarded him like a stranger. 

The reason why she hates him so much.

*

He had no choice.

There was no other way to it. Despite his earlier hesitations, King Harrow eventually gave in to Lord Viren seeking a means to end the war with the elves and the dragons—another one of his creative solutions. 

Lord Viren had searched long and hard for this spell during their last battle, hoping this would be the one to finally end the war between men and elves and the dragons. 

But as all things with dark magic, they both paid a heavy price. 

Queen Sarai had gone down with the magic. As Harrow grieved over her, Viren escaped with the egg. He took it to where he and King Harrow had agreed. Hide the egg, tell the world it was destroyed. Oh, he would make sure Harrow believed it was destroyed. Tell a lie long enough and even the king would begin to believe it! (And should he remember, Viren had his means of persuasion.) 

“Viren!” 

He froze at the sound of the voice. Shocked and sending the hair on the back of his neck to stand, he turned to find Opeli, her wide eyes glued to the egg. 

He moved immediately. He pressed his hands against each side of her head and said the incantation, feeling the cloud of darkness fill the dark dungeon, the halls, the courtyard, the throne room, the looking towers…

He thought of King Harrow and choked back a tear before releasing. 

Lord Viren still held on, even as he held the limp form of his wife for the last few moments before she regained consciousness, looked up at him, and no recognition crossed her eyes. She recoiled away in shame at being held by a man she did not know, and recoiled in disgust at the smell of his dungeon. 

Since then Opeli loathed Viren. 

None in the castle remembered the bond that once existed between Lord Viren and Lady Opeli, not even King Harrow, not even their own children, Soren and Claudia. 

But King Harrow had hated dark magic ever since, blaming it for the death of the valiant Queen Sarai.

*

“Opeli…”

Opeli had stormed off to make arrangements for the funeral of the late king, against better judgement, as she had made it known to Viren. 

Viren sighed, left alone with his beloved Harrow’s body. The memory spell was far too strong on Opeli. A reversal at this point was impossible, and he had none of his daughter’s optimism to seek any means of alternative in the face of impossibility. With Sarai gone, Harrow gone, Opeli good as gone, and the mission he was planning for Soren and Claudia, he had never felt so alone in the big castle of Katolis.


End file.
